Oswalt sure knows how to turn your stomach

Jose de Jesus Ortiz, whose knowledge surpasses all of ours combined, sez:
I will be shocked if Roy Oswalt doesn't land on the 15-day disabled list. He'll have to make some dramatic progress between now and Monday. Oswalt looked in tremendous pain when he walked. Even as he tried to rest his back by lying down, his facial expression made it clear he was in pain...

...And as I told him Friday, I've never seen you appear in so much pain. He laughed and then told me that former Astros shortstop Julio Lugo, a member of the Cardinals, had just seen him in the team hotel and told him they are both starting to get old.

In discomfort, Oswalt lied awkwardly on his back on the floor while bracing himself against his locker stall at Busch Stadium. For now, the Astros' ace righthander has been skipped from his scheduled start on Sunday, and the club will wait until Monday to decide if he must go on the disabled list or be penciled to start Tuesday.

Oswalt:
"It feels better than when it happened. If I had to pitch today I couldn't pitch today. ... I got a bad disk. It's herniated. It's sticking out and it's pressing on a nerve going around to my side. And my hip and leg tends to go to sleep some time."

That's freaking gross.

Coop:
"We're going to wait and see until about Monday and then make a decision. Right now it's not feeling that great, but we'll wait to see on Monday to see how he feels. If he feels OK he'll make it on Tuesday. And if not, then we got to make some decision after that."

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And in the same massive blog post, Ed Wade on the quiet trade deadline:
"We had some conversation throughout the day with a couple of clubs, but I don't think we ever got close to anything. We probably talked to about a half a dozen clubs with various scenarios. And nothing seemed to fit for us, as I anticipated. I'm not surprised...

..."I'm not surprised or disappointed that we didn't get anything done. With the payroll where it is and our desire to protect our prospects in our system, I'm not surprised. I didn't make it not impossible, but probably improbable to get anything done of consequence. Having a chance to get Norris in the rotation gives us a different look than we had during the season. Our expectations with him are guardedly high. I view that as a step in the right direction. We got to get Lance back healthy and Hawk back healthy and continue to do the things that we were doing before we got to Chicago."
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Berkman also hopes to start running on Monday:
"You know I think when I first went on the DL I wasn't sure that I needed to go on it, but now I'm glad I did because it's really something that has lingered even though I haven't been playing. I am anxious to get back out there, but only when I feel like I'm 100 percent or at least good enough to where I'm not going to have any setbacks. It's never really bothered me to hit. It's the running that's going to be the main hurdle, and I have not attempted it yet so I have nothing to report on that front."
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